'He's Our Giant': The Cerne Abbas Giant as a Community Symbol

Banner image downloaded via Shutterstock, https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sitting-on-bench-cerne-abbas-2019413234

In many ways, the Cerne Abbas Giant is seen as a member of the village community.

Reverend Jonathan Still, the vicar of the local St Mary's Church, told Rebecca Mead:

"The giant is absolutely essential to what this place is, and who these people are [...] He is an active personality in this community, and that is far, far, far more important than when anyone constructed him [...] He is an artifact, and he is undeniable." (1)

This quote alone highlights several key aspects of the community's relationship with the giant. First, he is central to community identity, and his presence is felt across many village businesses. The Cerne Abbas Brewery features the tagline 'We are a modest brewery with Giant integrity', and their beer bottles feature illustrations of the giant. (2) This is certainly not unusual; many places with identifiable monuments or figures will use them across their advertising. This becomes particularly effective when there is folklore associated with the place, which can then form what Sullenberger refers to as 'folklure', the 'calculated association of folkloristic concepts with manufactured products'. (3) The value of this surely increases in a small village such as Cerne Abbas, whose main source of visitors is the Cerne Abbas giant, a fact which is acknowledged by villager Rupert Valpy, who describes the giant as 'a very good asset'. (4)

Tourists seem to agree. One Tripadvisor user mentioned an enjoyable visit to the Cerne Abbas Brewery after being disappointed by the giant himself, another stated '(w)e saw a van with him (the giant) on the side, there’s a tearoom in Cerne Abbas that has meals named after him, restaurants displaying him and it’s really heartening to see how the community has embraced him as their piece of history.' (5)

A photograph of a dark brown glass beer bottle with a bright red label. In the centre of the label is a large yellow oval, with the black outline of the Cerne Abbas giant, a naked man with a club raised in his left hand.

A promotional photograph from Cerne Abbas Brewery's website of 'Tiger Tom Ruby Mild' beer, the label of which features an image of the Cerne Abbas giant: https://www.cerneabbasbrewery.com/store/Tiger-Tom-Ruby-Mild-12-x-500ml-p241606116

A photograph of The Giant Inn, a red brick building with green and white signage, which features a white outline of the Cerne Abbas giant.

The Giant Inn, Cerne Abbas

Downloaded via Shutterstock: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cerne-abbas-dorset-england-july-9-1506329195

Tripadvisor review for the Cerne Abbas giant, published 13/9/2013

Tripadvisor review for the Cerne Abbas giant, published 13/8/2021

Sharing a Giant Pint

It would be overly cynical, however, to define the value of the giant to locals as purely monetary. Vic Irvine, the co-owner of the Cerne Abbas Brewery, outlines a reciprocal relationship between the community and the giant in an interview with Rebecca Mead:

"I’m very much mindful and respectful of him,” Irvine said. “He’s our giant. You look after him, and he’ll look after you. Don’t upset him, because he’ll come off the hill and eat all the children." (6)

One such example of this is the account of Reverend Jonathan Still, who, accompanied by Irvine and co-owner Jodie Moore, brought offerings of beer for the giant. Still recalls to Mead:

"It was freezing cold, with the smoke curling up from the chimneys below. We sat up around the giant’s head—which is totally illegal—and we tasted this one, and that one, and we poured some into the giant’s mouth [...] we saw his Adam’s apple go up and down as he swallowed it" (7)

A Giant Godfather

This beer pilgrimage recalls another aspect of folklore surrounding the giant which has presumably arisen from his prominent erect penis. The giant has become somewhat of a fertility symbol, the rumour being that either sitting on or having sex on the giant's penis will help a couple conceive. One prestigious proponent of this belief was Henry Frederick Thynne, the Marquess of Bath, who in the 1980s claimed that when he and his wife were struggling to conceive, they visited the giant - 'I explained the problem and sat on him', Thynne told a reporter. They reportedly had a daughter several months later, naming G. Cerne as her godfather. (8)

Chalk and Cake

This is one of many ritual engagements with the giant by members of the local community. Once every 10 years or so, over 50 volunteers climb the steep slope to rechalk a giant. This is one of the few occasions visitors can get up close and personal with the Cerne Abbas giant, as he is usually fenced off to the public. Most of the time, the giant is maintained by a flock of sheep, who keep the grass short enough to ensure the giant is still visible, but once a decade a little extra help is needed to preserve the giant. It's tough work; in 2008, it took nine days for the roughly 60 volunteers to dig out the faded chalk and replace it with around 20 tonnes of freshly imported chalk. (9) This rechalking has been practised since the earliest record of the Cerne Abbas Giant in 1694, in which the churchwarden for St Mary's notes the spending of three shillings 'for repaireing of ye Giant'. (10) It is very much a community event, which Steven Morris describes as being 'fuelled by tea and cake', and many of the volunteers are residents of the nearby village. (11) One villager, Diana Kimber, told Morris '(i)t's right that we honour him by maintaining him. It's a real thrill to be here close to him among the butterflies and the flowers.' (12) Although it is managed by the National Trust, it is the local community who do most of the work looking after the giant, as seems to have been the case since 1694.

Dances with Giants

Another opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with the giant is May Day, which has been celebrated at Cerne Abbas since 1972 by Morris dancing. This celebration is becoming increasingly popular among villagers, who congregate in the Red Lion pub after the dancing for a full English breakfast. (13) According to Martin Grey, 'Maypole dancing still occurred at the site as recently as 1635 when Christian authorities finally suppressed the pagan festivals', (13) however this version is certainly a modern ritual.

A video from the Youtube channel 'darkdorset' showing Morris dancers at Cerne Abbas.

A Giant Celebration

This is not the only community ritual event which has emerged relatively recently. The annual Cerne Giant Festival was first established in 2017 by Reverend Still's wife, Jane Still. (14) The festival's website identifies the giant as 'a sort of benign Spirit of Place', stating its main aims as 'to raise awareness of, explore and pay tribute to, the humans and other forces which have been influenced by our landscape from ancient times'. Events in 2022 ranged from herb gathering to beer brewing and fly-casting, and talks included 'Otters in the Cerne', 'Nature and Joy', 'Albion Dreamtime: Re-enchanting the Isle of Dragons', and 'Morris in Cerne' (held after the Morris dancing on May Day). (15) Folklore traditions are often central to this event, which incorporates both Christian and non-Christian ideas, woven together with a focus on engagement with nature and the land. Community identity and celebration are explicitly tied to place.

'He's Our Giant'

In their study of folklore tourism and the Robin Hood festival, Everett and Parakoottathil argue that 'shared myth-making is an important part of shaping community identity and fostering celebration', (16) and this is clearly the case in Cerne Abbas. In the absence of any definitive information about the giant's origin or identity, which I explored in my previous blog post, the Cerne Abbas community has created their own myths and narratives, which are accompanied by rituals. Keridwen Cornelius summarises this idea neatly:

'Many people think of art as the creation of a single artist at one point in time. The chalk figures are created and re-created communally and continuously. [...] And because the meaning of many geoglyphs is unknown, each community can infuse them with ever-changing stories, even as they connect with the generations that carried on this tradition for thousands of years.' (17)

To the people of Cerne Abbas, it doesn't matter who created him; what matters is he, and the folklore which has built up around him, is theirs.

A drone photograph of the Cerne Abbas Giant, a chalk hill carving of a giant.

The Cerne Abbas giant, as seen from above.

Downloaded via Shutterstock https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-drone-cerne-abbas-giant-dorset-2144197991

References

Rebecca Mead, 'The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant'.
https://www.cerneabbasbrewery.com/
Sullenberger cited by Zachary Nowak, 'Folklore, fakelore, history. Invented tradition and the origins of the pizza margherita', Food, Culture & Society, 17 (2014), p. 118.
Steven Morris, 'Volunteers restore Cerne Abbas giant to former glory'.
'Cerne Abbas Giant' on Tripadvisor https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1604560-d210251-Reviews-Cerne_Abbas_Giant-Cerne_Abbas_Dorset_England.html (accessed 20/11/2022) For referencing of individual reviews, please see screenshots and associated captions/ alt text.
Rebecca Mead, 'The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant'.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Steven Morris, 'Volunteers restore Cerne Abbas giant to former glory; Makeover was needed to restore mysterious chalk figure on Dorset hill that inspires local legend', in The Guardian, 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/aug/29/volunteers-restore-cerne-abbas-giant-to-former-glory (accessed 18/11/2022).
Rebecca Mead, 'The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant', in The New Yorker: Letter from England, (2021) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/24/the-mysterious-origins-of-the-cerne-abbas-giant (accessed 15/11/2022).
Steven Morris, 'Volunteers restore Cerne Abbas giant to former glory'.
Ibid.
Richard Lewis, 'Celebrating May Day the pagan way', The Guardian, (2005) https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2005/may/01/unitedkingdom.culturaltrips.observerescapesection1 (accessed 21/11/2022).
Martin Grey, 'Cerne Abbas Giant', World Pilgrimage Guide, https://sacredsites.com/europe/england/cerne_abbas_giant.html (accessed 21/11/2022).
Rebecca Mead, 'The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant'.
See https://cernegiantfestival.org/
Sally Everett & Denny John Parakoottathil, 'Transformation, meaning-making and identity creation through folklore tourism: the case of the Robin Hood Festival', Journal of Heritage Tourism, 13:1, (2018), p. 34.
Keridwen Cornelius, 'Tiny Snails Help Solve a Giant Mystery', Sapiens.org, (2021) https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/cerne-abbas-giant/ (accessed 13/11/2022).